On January 10, I ordered a Pocket PC Phone from A1 Wireless over their web site. After completing some additional paperwork which they requested on January 13, I received email from them that my order had been processed.

I emailed them on Saturday Jan 17 to ask when they expected to deliver my phone, as they promised free 2nd day delivery on their web site offer.

Their customer service rep informed me at that time that they were out of stock and might have the product available to ship the following Monday or Tuesday. Meanwhile my credit card had already been billed on January 11, when they almost certainly knew they had no product available to fill my order.

On January 20 I finally received a package containing the wrong phone. It appears someone in their warehouse transposed an order number, and sent my phone to an address in Chicago. I called immediately and was promised a return phone call within two hours.

I waited four hours, and then emailed and faxed them indicating that I would initiate a chargeback with my credit card company. I did receive a return phone call, and a promise that the phone would be delivered today, Friday.

Needless to say, it did not show up as promised. I called Fedex who was supposed to deliver it, and they had no record of any deliveries scheduled for my address for Friday.

I got on the phone again to A1 Wireless to find out what happened, and was disconnected. I emailed and faxed them again, finally got a phone call back, and this time they promised to deliver the phone Saturday. Somehow I have trouble believing this will happen either.

The best they can offer is $15 compensation for my troubles. I think the fact that they billed my card without having the item in stock, and only told me that when I asked a week later what happened to my order, and then screwed up the delivery and sent my phone to the wrong place, is worth a little more than that, but they don't agree.

They also don't agree that they were wrong (1) to have charged my card when the item was not in stock (2) to have failed to inform me that the item was not in stock (3) to have made me wait while they attempted to retrieve the mis-shipped item instead of shipping me a NEW phone immediately. I think that's no way to treat a customer.